Matlock 29 Nottingham Casuals 8

25th October 2014

Midlands 2 East (N)

Matlock 29 Nottingham Casuals 8

Casuals came up against a Matlock side determined to consolidate 100% record, but they were not overwhelmed.
Neither side were utterly convincing in their ability to keep possession of the ball, with Matlock at times spilling simple catches, and Casuals being too indecisive and jittery on their own ball.
The final result must have frustrated a lot of the Casuals players, who put in a hard shift, with little reward.

Casuals forwards took on Matlock in all phases, and Casuals lineout worked particularly well, gaining nearly all their own ball. They competed well in the rucks and mauls, though their efforts sometimes failed due to the ability to lose possession in crucial phases.
The scrum was a lot more solid than in previous weeks, so the backs had a reasonable amount of possession to endeavour to construct attacks.

Casuals were put under early pressure by Matlock and had to defend their try line resolutely, and they eventually broke the stranglehold to get deep into Matlock’s half, and Matlock conceded a penalty, which Mark Higgins converted.
Unfortunately, Matlock then came back on the attack, and they grabbed a penalty to level.
They added to their score when they set up a move midfield, and some clever blocking created a huge gap for a run through to the posts for a converted try.
Matlock further increased their lead with another converted try, pouncing on a dreadful midfield pass by Casuals, and they went over unhindered for a very soft try.

Casuals were not giving in, and a penalty to touch led to a driven maul, and Matlock had a man yellow carded for killing the ball at the ruck.
Casuals obviously realising they could out-push Matlock, set up another driving maul, and eventually the ball went to Chris Brelsford who crossed in the corner, after several attacks had been thwarted.
If that tactic could have been repeated, Casuals would have been rewarded with more points, and kept Matlock at bay.

With the ½ time score only 17 – 8, it looked as if Casuals could force their way back into the game.

They managed to put pressure on Matlock again, and when another Matlock man was carded for a silly trip, Casuals looked to be gaining some ascendancy.

Both sides were guilty of dropping the ball, both fielding kicks, and in bog standard passing moves, but Casuals were unable to build on their possession, especially on good lineout ball.

They took some wrong options, and when they inexplicably decided not to kick to the corner from a penalty to use their lineout supremacy, going for goal instead from a long way out, and missing, Matlock gained some confidence. Matlock then went in for 2 more tries to grab the try bonus point, leaving Casuals with meagre pickings from a lot of hard graft on their part.

Casuals have to learn to play to their strengths, and not ignore areas of obvious supremacy.
Wasting hard won ball must be frustrating at any time, but when players graft for possession, as happened on Saturday, and thwart attacks with their dogged defence, then the reward should be points on the board.
Boring is sometimes best, and with the lineout working well, then the option of gaining ground through driven mauls should have been put to greater use. The rewards were obvious when the forwards retained possession, so the backs have to be more patient and wait a bit longer to get their hands on the ball.